22 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS 



without fear of the competition of any country 

 but France, and his great aim should be, by 

 means of good methods and effective organiza- 

 tion, to cultivate this particular branch of the 

 trade, and be in a position to make better terms 

 with the railways than, as shown above, he is 

 able to do at present. 



To render Great Britain entirely independent 

 of foreign eggs would require, according to one 

 trustworthy authority, twenty-five years of per- 

 sistent effort, and even then it might be a ques- 

 tion in regard to the cheapest qualities of eggs 

 (and especially those used for industrial pro- 

 cesses) whether, in a country of such limited 

 dimensions as ours, the land could not be more 

 profitably employed than by devoting it to 

 poultry-raising on so large a scale, in order to 

 compete with peasants occupying comparatively 

 valueless land in Siberia, Galicia, and elsewhere. 

 With a special market at home offering abundant 

 scope for his own energies, the British farmer 

 can, indeed, well look with complacency on the 

 bulk of the imports of foreign eggs. On the 

 other hand he ought not to expect any railway 

 company, conducted on business principles, to 

 carry retail lots at wholesale prices. When he 

 is able to send truck-loads he will certainly get 

 the most favourable truck-load rates ; but if, in 



